Firstly i think that the purchasing of workshop manual, given that you are intending to work on the car for the foreseeable future, is a good thing.

I'm not sure why if the engine was running ragged. Did one assume that the coil needed renewing? If the car started then the coil must have been producing a spark. Anyway, now that you have renewed the coil and number 1 lead (why just number 1? why not all the HT leads?) I would suggest that to start with you remove the king lead from the top of the distributor, hold it approximately one inch from a point of the engine that will give a good earth (engine block etc), and turn the engine over. You should get a good healthy spark. If you do, then you need to move to the distributor. If you don't, then go back to the coil.

Did you fit it with the correct polarity? That is, given that your car has negative earth system that the wire from the coil to the distributor is connected to the terminal marked 'negative'. Then the wire from the ign switch to the coil should be connected to the terminal marked 'positive'. If you still are not getting any spark at the king lead, then you need to check that you have a live feed going into the coil (at the positive end). If so, with the ignition switched on, you should have a feed coming out of the coil from the negative terminal. If all of these checks are good, and you are still not getting a HT spark, it would appear that you have a fault at the distributor.

As you say you are not sure of what type, I cannot then write up all the checks for differing types of distributor. What you should do is carry out a visual check - look at the rotor arm, check the segments, check the cap for signs of cracks etc. After that, if still no go, then you would need a workshop manual which will explain in detail how and what to do. One piece of advice would be to make sure that whoever is advising you on your car is suitably qualified and not just having a good guess.